Secretary of state sending voter ID cards to Iowans this week

If you are a registered voter without a driver's license or state-issued ID and do not receive a card by the end of December, call your county auditor's office.

Elizabeth Meyer

Iowans should expect to see a voter identification card in their mailboxes soon if they do not already have a driver's license or other state-approved form of identification.

The free cards are being mailed this week to about 123,000 registered voters as part of Secretary of State Paul Pate's voter ID initiative implemented in the Iowa Legislature earlier this year.

"It should be easy to vote, but hard to cheat, and that's what this new law ensures," Pate said Monday in a press release. "We are taking the unprecedented step of mailing free Voter ID cards automatically to every registered voter who does not already have an Iowa driver's license or non-driver's ID. Only those Iowans will receive these cards. I encourage them to be on the lookout for the voter ID cards in the mail, and when they receive their card, open it, sign it and keep it."

Registered voters with a valid driver's license or other state-approved forms of ID from the Iowa Department of Transportation will not receive a voter ID card.

Other than a driver's license or non-operator ID, valid forms of identification include a passport, military or veterans ID.

Those who do not receive a voter ID card by late-December should contact their county auditor's office.

Beginning in January, voters will be asked to present their voter ID, driver's license or non-operator ID at the polls, but will not be required to do so until January 2019.

Any voter without proper ID in 2018 will sign an oath attesting they are an eligible voter in their precinct and will be permitted to vote.

Pate has often stressed no eligible voter will be turned away from the polls even if they present improper identification.

He has said any Iowan without a valid ID can have another voter attest to their identity or cast a provisional ballot.

The Republican-led bill passed the Legislature in April along party lines, but it was first brought forward by Pate, a Republican, just before the start of the 2017 legislative session in January.

The final bill, managed by GOP Sen. Roby Smith of Davenport, did not exactly follow Pate's initial proposal and included other new voting provisions, including the elimination of straight-ticket voting, shortening the window for mailing ballots to 19 days ahead of time and trims absentee voting availability from 40 to 29 days prior to Election Day.

The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency in Des Moines has estimated the total fiscal impact to issue voter ID cards and update technology associated with the cards would be at least $150,000 and could hit as high as $405,000.